A day after Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power pulled out of Rs36,000 crore 4,000-MW Tilaiya Ultra Mega Power project, the Jharkhand Government blamed the company for dilly-dallying. The State Government rubbished the claims of delay on its part in getting the project through while claiming that most of the clearances were in the pipeline.
“We are shocked and surprised to know the Reliance Power has abandoned the Tilaiya UMPP citing issues relating to delays in land acquisition and other clearances. Withdrawal on these grounds is just a lame excuse on their part. All the desired clearances and land acquisition were at the advanced stage. On April 15 itself, a review meeting was called and they had given a fresh requisition two days later,” said State Chief Secretary Rajiv Gauba in an informal talk with the mediapersons on Wednesday.
When quizzed about actual reasons behind the pullout, the CS said that the company was losing interest subsequently in the ambitious power project allocated to it in August 2009 on tariff based competitive bidding. “They were perhaps getting a sense that the project has not remained economically viable as cost over the period of time has escalated by additional Rs1,600 crore. The company even in September 2013 had approached Centre’s CERC for tariff revision. We had kept the project on priority however they were adopting delaying tactics. A public hearing had been conducted on March 2 where no representative of the company was present,” added Gauba defending the State Government. To drive home his point, he said that company’s share price rose up after the decision for pullout. Jharkhand Integrated Power ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Reliance Power, had formed a joint venture and entered into power purchase agreement with tariff of Rs1.77 per unit. However, land acquisition, mostly falling under GM category, slowed down the progress leading to delay of five years. Nevertheless, the CS said that the process had come on track since the new Government came at the helm.
“I cannot say what happened before but things were coming up well in the last six months. Even the Centre had patted the State Government for expediting clearance process,” said the Chief Secretary. The project was based on captive coal blocks for which coal was to be sourced from Kerendari BC coal mine block. The total land requirement for the project was over 17,000 acres.
He also put some light on the future of the power plant and said in the given circumstances being the promoter the Ministry of Power had to take a call. “The project is at advanced stage and allotted with land, water etc. It will not stop. As far as State Government’s active participation in this is concerned it is premature to think about. Right now we are focusing more on PTPS and another UMPP at Deoghar. If the ongoing projects are complete on time, there would be no dearth of power and Jharkhand would become a power surplus State,” he clarified.
Gauba also sounded confident when asked about any adverse impact on investment atmosphere in the State, saying that host of other projects, including Tata Power are continuing in Jharkhand. Regarding power sector projects a mechanism has been put in place for fast tracking different projects like UMPP, Tilaiya, NTPC’s North Karanpura Project, NTPC’s Coal Mining Project at Pakari-Barwadih, Chati-Bariatu, DVC-Koderma Power Plant, Tata Power’s, Tiruldih Power Plant; DVC-Maithan Phase — II Power Plant, expansion of PTPS (4000 MW) through proposed JV arrangement with NTPC, said a Press communiqué of the Government.
The company had in a statement said that, “Even after relentlessly pursuing the project development for nearly five and half years, due to procurers’ failure to provide land for the project, execution time-frame continues to remain uncertain,” and had expressed apprehension that going by the present estimate of land handover process the project cannot be completed before 2023-24.
